His Story I

„His Story“ – first steps to an examination of “the dialogue”

In the videowork „His Story I“ Friedemann Derschmidt and Shimon Lev are telling the stories of their family origins. But they are not telling theyr “own stories”. In a mirror like situation they are telling the story of the other one. While Lev is introducing himself in hebrew language as a descendant of an austrian extended tribal family, who was heavily engaged in National Socialism, Derschmidt is telling in german about the fate of “his” family, where most of it´s members have been murdered by the Nazis. The texts were not prepared. Lev and Derschmidt tried spontanously to slip “into each others skin”, which is finally impossible but giving a lot of insight especially because of it´s impossibility. Not what’s being said itself – or maybe that aswell – the confusion comes from the “in between”, the unspeakable….